Middlesbrough fan attends every Boro competitive game since 1996

A Middlesbrough football fan who has not missed a competitive game for nearly 30 years has just marked his 1,400th consecutive match.

Nick Waites's run started in September 1996 and includes all league, FA Cup, league cup and European matches, but not pre-season friendlies

The last league game he missed was in 1992 when Boro beat Wolves to win promotion into the very first Premier League, which happened to be the day of his brother's wedding.

He said that over the years there had been "some very close calls" - he was also not allowed to attend games during the pandemic - and while he knows the run has "got to come to an end" at some point, for now he is ready to keep going.

Middlesbrough's FA Cup away loss to Fulham on Saturday saw Waites reach his latest milestone.

"I've been very close a few times with illness," he told BBC Radio Tees.

"There's a few times when no doubt I probably wouldn't have passed the fitness test if I'd had one."

Waites recalled the time he had a hernia operation on a Wednesday and still managed to make it to Leicester on the Saturday to cheer on Boro.

"I don't know how I managed to get on the train, even less of an idea of how I got into the ground, but I did," he said.

The fan said he booked his holidays around the summer and international breaks, and that pre-season friendlies do not interest him.

There were also times during the pandemic when he was not allowed into the ground.

Waites said he still remembered when he got to 1,000 games in 2016 and his friends told him it was "time to pack in the addiction".

"A few people at the time threatened to kidnap me for a game," Waites said.

"It will come to an end, it's got to come to an end.

"I often wonder how will it end, you know, will we get stuck in a traffic jam somewhere, or a train delay or whatever?

"But yeah, we just roll on."

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